The Year of the Great Seventh (22 page)

“We’re closing the gate. You need to board if you’re coming.” The gate attendant half-grinned, aware that I was waiting for someone.

It was just her and me. I stared at my boarding pass.

CHAPTER XII

“OKAY, SURE.” I HANDED the boarding pass to her. I could feel my hands shaking. I guess I was going to go ahead. It wasn’t a conscious decision; it was more about the inability to make up my mind.

The gate attendant handed me back the boarding pass with a grin that felt out of place.

“Can you make sure we’re sitting together?” I heard behind me. I turned around to find Nate next to me.

I passed my arm around his back and gave him a tight hug. He kissed me on the cheek. I couldn’t hide how happy I was to see him.

“Why didn’t you reply to my texts? I was really worried.”

“Sorry, I just saw them when walking to the gate.” Nate waved his phone. “Regardless of what you said yesterday, I knew you’d find a way to come. I’m not that surprised to find you here.” Nate grinned at me.

“I wasn’t that sure that was going to happen.”

“How did you manage to get your parents to agree?” Nate said, still smiling.

“Honestly, you don’t even want to know.”

“I’ll take that.” Nate grabbed my backpack. It was so heavy the straps were carving into my shoulders. I hadn’t noticed until now.

Nate lifted the bag as though it were filled with feathers.

The gate attendant returned the boarding pass to Nate. Then he leaned over to stow the boarding pass in the side pocket of his carry-on. The gate attendant checked him out from head to toe.

“Enjoy your flight,” she said, looking at Nate. I’d become invisible.

I think it was beginning to annoy me to have to share Nate with the rest of the female world. I couldn’t really blame her though; he did look stunning with his dark blue jeans, white shirt, and black blazer. I don’t know how he did it, but he dressed up really well. He had the formal look with a touch of rebellion. In this case, it was his black Converse shoes and his brand new spiky haircut—his curling locks history.

We proceeded to our seats at the front of the plane in the first-class cabin. I looked around to see if I could recognize anyone famous, but today didn’t seem to be my day.

He took the window seat and buckled his seatbelt. He drummed his fingers on the armrest, staring out of the window. “Sophie, your parents are going to kill you and then me. I can’t believe I let you persuade me into doing this.”

Nate didn’t seem too convinced with our plan.

“We’ll be fine. I’m planning to do the NYU tour, so I’m not technically lying to anyone. There’s no way they can find out that I have a different mission, or that you’re here with me.”

Dad had spoken to Professor Silverman, the head of the history department, after Mom had gone to bed the night before. He was Dad’s long-time friend. He’d scheduled a meeting with him halfway through the week to check up on me. Also, his friend was in charge of awarding the only full history scholarship. In theory, NYU wouldn’t award the scholarship until your senior year, but by then, they already knew the recipient. It’s never too soon to start fighting for what you want.

The plane took off, and I pushed my seat back to get some sleep. Nate was still blankly staring at the seat in front.

“What if they call the dorms and realize you’re not staying there? You should’ve stayed there.”

“Nate, stop panicking. It’s all under control.” I hoped this was the case. He had a point. Although, I knew if my parents wanted to reach me, they’d always try my cell phone first. I had to make sure I kept it charged and always had coverage.

Nate seemed to be more worried about getting busted by my parents than I was. It was best if Nate and I stayed at the same place. We only had a week in New York. We couldn’t waste any time.

Nate also reclined his seat and covered himself with a blanket. “I can’t believe I let you convince me to do this. I must be crazy.”

“And I can’t believe I’m letting you pick up the tab! I promise I’m going to pay you—”

“Okay, you drop that too. I thought we’d already gone through all that.” Nate laughed.

Nate closed his eyes, hinting he wasn’t going to discuss the matter again, and as I knew I had no chance of winning that fight, I decided to drop the subject.

Covering myself with a blanket, I managed to sleep most of the flight. Not even the excitement of sitting next to Nate could keep me awake. I was exhausted as I hadn’t been able to sleep much the night before. Even though I didn’t want to admit it to Nate, I was scared to death about getting busted. If my parents ever found out about this, I was grounded for life.

I wanted to believe that if I attended the NYU tour, this would technically mean I’d told the truth to my parents, even if I omitted two paramount pieces of information: that Nate was coming with me to NYU, and that my real reason to be in New York wasn’t the NYU tour, but a ridiculous mission to find a cure for Nate’s condition.

I knew if my parents had the full story, they would see my reasoning for the trip as a straight-out lie and would be terribly disappointed in me.

I half-opened my eyes a couple of times through the flight, and each time, I found Nate just staring at the back of the seat in front of him. At first, I thought he was watching a movie. Then I realized he didn’t have the headphones on. Leaning over slightly, with my eyes half-shut, I saw the screen was off.

Nate didn’t realize I was observing him. He was just lost in his thoughts, staring blankly at the front seat. I could tell the cheerfulness he’d put on in the morning was a cover. Now that he wasn’t aware of my wandering eyes, his smile faded away. I knew something was deeply wrong and he was trying to hide it.

When he saw what he thought was me waking up, he quickly grabbed a magazine from the seat pocket and pretended to be reading it. He stroked my hair and smiled at me. By now I was really worried.

When we landed, Nate reached to grab our bags from the overhead compartment, and his shirt got caught on the side of the seat. When he realized it, he quickly dropped the bags on the floor and put his shirt back in place. He looked strangely stressed out and turned around to see if I’d been watching him.

I didn’t know what was going on, but Nate’s erratic behavior was making me nervous. There seemed to be something on his mind that he wasn’t prepared to share.

A uniformed driver was waiting for us at the arrivals hall. He was holding a board with the word “Werner” written on it.

The man grabbed our suitcases and we followed behind. The moment we stepped onto the street, a gust of polar wind blew, reminding us that we’d just landed in the middle of New York’s unforgiving winter.

By the time we left the airport, it was after five p.m., and it was already getting dark. As the hours passed, Nate seemed to have more trouble hiding his concern. And I knew this wasn’t related to me having lied to my parents.

Speechless, I stared out the window. I’d been to New York before, but I couldn’t remember much because I was a little kid. This felt like it was the first time. I couldn’t suppress my excitement at seeing the Manhattan skyscrapers appearing in the distance as we careered along the highway. The bridges that connected Long Island to Manhattan were lit up and hung from one side of the East river to the other like sequin spider webs.

Nate spent most of the trip in silence, lost in his thoughts. He played with his phone, pretending he was busy.

I couldn’t play this game anymore. I needed to know what was on Nate’s mind. “Nate, are you all right? You’ve been really quiet since we landed.”

He looked out of the window, unable to look me in the eye. “It’s all good. I’m just worried about your parents busting you.”

He went back to playing with his phone, obviously not planning to confess what was going on.

We followed Fifty-Ninth Street toward the west side. I was curious to know what hotel Nate had booked.

As we hit Central Park, the taxi driver took a turn down the south side of the park. Two huge glass towers climbed up into the sky in front of us. The taxi finally came to a halt beside of one of them.

“We’re staying here.” Nate nodded toward the tower and handed three twenty-dollar bills to the driver.

As soon as the driver unloaded our luggage, the hotel porter put our bags on a trolley and pushed it into the building. We took the elevator to the thirtieth floor where the checkin desk was located.

As the doors opened, a dramatic view of Central Park and the New York skyline appeared in front of us. There was a white marble checkin desk to one side, and the room was surrounded by large, glass windows. A huge glass chandelier illuminated the space. It was already completely dark outside. Central Park was merely a black stain in the middle of the sparkling skyscrapers. I was blown away.

An important detail I’d missed suddenly came to mind. Were we going to share the same room? On the one hand, I could understand it was more economical to share the same room, but on the other, I wasn’t sure if I was ready to spend the night with Nate.

I knew Nate was a gentleman, but just the thought of it made my insides squirm guiltily. As of today, I was about to break every rule my parents had. Would the room have two beds at least?

I couldn’t really ask him to get a second room if I couldn’t offer to pay for it. What was I going to do? It’s not that I’d already decided I didn’t want to stay with him, but I hadn’t exactly thought of this situation and I didn’t have time to properly mull over it.

“Hi, I’m Nathan Werner. I have a reservation.” Nate handed his credit card to the woman.

“A” reservation
, I thought. Singular. I didn’t want to admit it, but I was starting to panic.

The woman began typing energetically on the keyboard as if she were writing a one-page essay. She glanced at Nate over her computer screen.

Nate observed her as she nodded while reading something on the screen. The woman finally spoke. “Can I see your ID please?”

Oh, God! Where were we going to sleep if they didn’t let us check in? I was sure that to book a hotel room you had to be eighteen. What had I been thinking? What were we going to do?

Nate reached into his jeans pocket and pulled out a wallet. He searched through the different compartments until he grabbed what looked like an ID. What was he doing? We were going to get escorted to the door the moment they realized we were just sixteen.

She checked the front and the back of the ID and returned it to Nate with a smile. “That’s great, thanks.”

Then I knew. It was a fake ID. Everyone had one at school. Nate was too smart to fall at such a simple hurdle. I’d even thought about getting one in L.A.

Just listening to my own thoughts made me wonder what I’d become in the last few months. The old Sophie would’ve never thought of doing anything illegal, and here I was, on the other side of the country, with Nate Werner, checking into a hotel without my parents’ knowledge. I had to stop this. Once we got back to L.A., I was going to start behaving again.

“On the last day, you need to check out by 11:00 a.m. You can take that elevator over there to the fiftieth floor.” The woman nodded toward the interior wall and handed Nate what looked like a folder with the key. “Do you need help with the luggage?”

“We’re okay, thanks.” Nate grabbed all the bags and headed to the elevator.

I paced after him. My stomach tightened into a ball of nerves. If the room had only one bed, should I offer to sleep on the floor?

If my parents ever found out about this, I was grounded for the rest of my life. There would be no NYU. I’d be working with Mom as a casting assistant until the end of my days.

Once we got off the elevator on the fiftieth floor, we headed down the corridor to the last door. I didn’t dare look Nate in the eye. He was a bit of a mind reader just like Megan, and he’d know immediately what was going on. I didn’t want to make him pay for an extra room if that wasn’t in his budget. Also, I wanted to be as mature as he expected me to be.

Nate slid the keycard through the reader and pushed the door open with his body.

“I think it shouldn’t be too noisy. We’re quite high up.” Nate held the door for me with the bags so I could get into the room.

My first thought was that this must have cost a fortune and Nate’s parents were going to kill him. I’d never been in a hotel suite before, but I was confident this was one of them. The room was surrounded by glass windows. It was decorated oriental style and had a white carpet and white bubble lamps hanging from the ceilings. To the right, there was a sliding door that led to a type of living room with a long dining table and brown leather sofas. To the left there was a huge bed with black satin covers, a bunch of different sized pillows, and fresh, white tulips scattered on top. The bed was facing Central Park. A glass fireplace was encased in the wall that separated the sleeping area from the living room. You could see right through it into the other room.

I was speechless. The thing that stood out the most at the moment was that there was only one bed.